I wont do anymore of these, but I considered 93 and 94 to be the stongest years for these categories where it was hard to determine the winner because of the many strong performances within the category. Tommy Lee Jones is a great actor, but he didnt deserve to win here against Fiennes or DiCaprio. I give Fiennes the edge though, his mulltilayered turn as Amon Goeth should have won him his first Oscar

Oh, who cares about 1993? I'm still pissed that the GODFATHER crew canceled out each other's votes in 1972, enabling that lunatic Joel Grey to win for CABARET that year. Duvall, Pacino and Caan, c'mon! One of them should have won. (I would have gone with Duvall myself.)

Grey was pretty decent. I think Caan overall, but Pacino was put in the absolute wrong category.

Finnes easily wins here in a rematch where TLJ's performance was watered down by his work in the lackluster sequel. Still, it was a pretty entertaining performance and I've seen far worse Oscars awarded (i.e. 1974 Best Actor when Art Carney wins for sleepwalking though the barely memorable Harry and Tonto over Pacino for Godfather II, Hackman in The Conversation and Nicholson for Chinatown)

IMO Ralph Fiennes should have won.

James Caan for me

No disrespect to Hackman & Nicholson, they were great but I would have given this one to Al Pacino, such a great performance.

Fiennes easily....he makes Hitler look like a wuss.

Wow, what a travesty! Looking back at some past Oscar wins just leaves me shaking my head.

Any of them except the actual winner would be my pick. Four strong performances and a standard, run of the mill one. TLJ should have won for JFK where he actually, you know, had to act. Make up award, I guess - since he lost the Oscar before to a make up winner - Palance.

It's always interesting to see how time and future roles changes your view of a performance. Jones is good, but he's recycled that same role so many times that it's become tiresome. Fiennes, on the other hand, reached something dark and startling that still has amazing power in it nearly 20 years on.

Ralph Fiennes is a great actor (especially if working with a good director). Have not seen any of the Harry Potter films, but of the films I have seen I have been impressed by his work :

Quiz Show
Strange Days
The English Patient
Spider
Red Dragon
The Constant Gardener
In Bruges
The Hurt Locker

Caan's performance was the first of it's kind for that Italian thug and after that there were copy cats. I would go with Duvall.
No way to Joel Grey!!

I'm going to go with Pete Postlethwaite, because he's awesome. Plus I hate Schindler's List.

But I have to disagree about 1972. Joel Grey gave an absolutely iconic performance in Cabaret. The Godfather is a classic film with many great performances, and I'm not knocking any of them. But Joel Grey absolutely owned in Cabaret.

I thought Jones was great, but this should have been Fiennes to lose.

Thought Jones gave a great performance but would have been happy with Fiennes or Malkovich.

I think it's pretty incredible that his ex-wife (British chick from ER) blamed their divorce on who he had to become for that role.

Tommy Lee Jones winning that year was an abortion. He was good but compared to Fiennes and Posthelwaite (the latter of which definitely should have won), he was left in the dust.

Ralph Fiennes.

DiCaprio without a doubt. Played a retard better than Hanks, Penn, and Hoffman ever did.

I haven't seen the other performances, but between Jones and Malkovich I thought that Malkovich was much more deserving. He gave a very good performance in that film.